Julie Ward Centre Cats
Written by Glen Vena
Where to start, cats are doing well, weather has been crazy – hot then cold, still no good rains.
Sirius
Rehomed from Monaco Zoo
Sirius is looking good, we have seen him on a few occasions during fence patrols and he would be in the bushes. Other than that we only see him during feeding. He loves his food. However we do not see him doing things like the other leopard. For example, Kuma he is alone too, but Kuma would mark his turf, walk around his enclosure rasping, but with Sirius there is not much of that. I wonder if he is still missing his sister. I really hope this improves soon.
Sidney and I managed to get him into the hospital camp and we fed him in there, which gave me time to go in the main camp to clean his water out and to take his unstable jungle gym down. Replacing his jungle gym is going to be a very interesting project for the WWE students as they love to help around BFF.
- Here is Sirius charging me during one of my fence patrols, here I got him off guard and I think he got cross with himself for not spotting me in time so that he could run off again.
- Then he took a walk to have a drink and I never saw him again till it was feeding day. He looks good, I think he is misses Pitou. (PS, look at back ground, you can see the jungle gym I took down, that needs replacing. I want to get the WWE students involved here, and they will love this project.)
Sinbad
Rescued from Bacau Zoo in Romania
He is good, he is the favourite of most guests when they come to visit us, he is really popular. He loves his food, on the odd occasion he would roll on it and make very funny sounds and he growls if you call him by his name and get all protective over his food. He would use his big paws to cover the food up and his long tail would be lashing side to side, showing some serous lion behaviour, I love him so much and he always put a smile on my face. So indeed he is The Man! We managed to fix his sliding gate without needing to anaesthetise him, and to clean out his enclosure.
See picture below of gate been installed by Sinbad’s hospital camp, just behind the team working you can see a wooden boma, now Sinbad was in there the whole time while the team was doing the job, no need to dart him for this job, he is such a gentle lion, well I fed him too while he was in there just to keep him happy. (Errol’s team did a good job, thank Errol)
- When the work was done in the hospital camp I gave Sinbad his last bit of meat, he was so protective he was holding it with both paws and he has really big paws!
Ma Juah and Achee
Ma Juah rescued from a private zoo in Liberia and Achee from a private home in Romania
The girls are looking well and spend most of their time at the back of their enclosure. Achee is still very playful and MJ would be watching from a distance. During feeding Achee would be jumping, running and even rolling around, she is pretty content.
Well MJ - now and then you would see her marking her turf and if she would see Sinbad, she would give off a few barks and growls and roar loudly, Achee would join in too. Sinbad would just sit there and look at them but his eye would be on Achee because if Achee moves, his head will move into that direction. All good so far.
- Ma Juah sleeping
Leopard Triplets – Sami, Alam and Nimira
Found motherless in the Sudan
Most of the time we see them and our guests love them to bits too, they have so many admirers you know!
They look good. They always want food! But I have to watch what I give them otherwise I’m in big trouble, as they seem to put on weight very easily. Sometimes when driving pass the Julie Ward centre you will see them sitting on the jungle gyms looking out across the Shamwari reserve.
During feeding well, I do have my hands full, as Nimira wants to get food first and Sami never backs down and Alam he is the playful one that would get in the middle of the heat. Then Sami or Nimira would wrestle him! So Sami gets put in the hospital camp and Alam get fed towards the top of the camp and Nimira to the bottom of the camp then all is good.
- Here is Sami in the best shady spot he could find.
- Here is Nimira sleeping she saw me just as I finished taking this picture and she came towards the fence, she is the best, all of them are!
- Here is Sami walking in tall bushes looking for me while I was fixing a blocked pipe that runs through their enclosure. (Picture taken on my mobile phone’s camera)
Aslan and Stella
Rescued from zoos in Greece
For old cats they are doing very well. Aslan is still a bit grumpy and would now and then charge the fence and if he gets an electric shock he gets really cross and that scares me a lot as he could hurt himself, luckily with the new camp that is non-electrified fencing that has been reinforced. All good for now.
Report Animal Suffering | Contact Us | eNews | WildcreW | CEO's Blog | Sitemap | About Site | Copyright
